Re: jdk 1.4: what's alpha's future?

[Donald Spoon <dspoon@astcomm.net>]

Bob McElrath wrote:
> Adrian Zaugg [adi@geo.unizh.ch] wrote:
>
> > Dear Tom
> >
> > Indeed this is a intresting question! But to conclude from the enormous
> > echo on this list, you might repost it on the RedHat AXP list: There are
> > some people who might could answer this...
> >
> >
> > Greetings, Adrian.
> >
> > BTW: Does anybody know why Blackdown doesn't do a release for Alphas? Is
> > it complicated to compile the Blackdown Java for Alpha?
>
>
> Yes.  I looked into this at one point.  There is some arch-specific asm
> that must be written.  But if HPaq has 1.4 for Tru64, it should be
> simple to adapt that asm for linux.  The source from Sun for 1.4 does
> not, however, have alpha support.
>
> Cheers,
> Bob McElrath [Univ. of California at Davis, Department of Physics]

I dunno if this is correct or not, but I have always suspected the lack 
of an "official" Java for the Alpha is fall-out from the days when SUN 
and DEC had competing CPUs.  SUN didn't do Alphas for their software 
much like Apple doesn't do Alphas either.  You could get SUN OS for the 
i386, but not the Alpha...  By the time Java came out, the Alpha arch 
was pretty much on the way out, and probably didn't offer much of a 
platform "market".   I don't think Compaq or HP wants to invest much in 
new software for the Alpha either  This is just my opinion, though.  No 
facts to back it up.

-Don Spoon-